Friday, 20 September 2013 Day 4 Montreal To Quebec

friday, 

We began our journey from Montreal to Quebec. We drove past lots of farmland where the main cops were apples, corn and livestock feed. It was harvest time so it was interesting to see some fields already harvested while others were in full growth. Some of the trees were beginning to turn the beautiful colours of autumn.

We stopped at Danny's Sugar Shack for lunch and after a talk on the production of maple syrup we enjoyed a country style lunch where everything had maple syrup on it including the bacon and baked beans. We enjoyed the down home country atmosphere and the country band.

Our next stop was a lookout near a small town. We noticed the French allegiance rather than a general Canadian allegiance and they flew their own flag rather than the Canadian flag. We became aware of the difference in the English style buildings and the French style with their mansard style roofs which includes the roof as an  integral part of the design which exaggerates roof height on structures with greater depth. Slate is the preferred roofing material for this design, but is in short supply so the 'Canadian style' sheet metal covering is used extensively in an attempt to evoke the slate tiles in staggered rows of the roofs in France. 

It was here that we had our first good look at the mighty St Laurence River.This evoked memories of Dad who regularly used to sail along it before and during World War 2.

We travelled on Quebec stopping at Battlefield Park, the Plains of Abraham and the Citadel an amazing underground star shaped fort. We again had stunning views of the St Laurence River.

The Citadelle of Quebec (French: Citadelle de Québec) is a military installationand official residence of both the Monarch of Canada and the Governor General of Canada located atop Cap Diamant, adjoining the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City,Quebec, Canada. This citadel is part of the fortifications of Quebec City. The city of Quebec is the only one in North America that is still surrounded by fortifications. The Citadelle is a National Historic Site of Canada, and also forms part of the Fortifications of Québec National Historic Site of Canada. The fortress is located within the "Historic District of Old Québec", which was designated a World Heritage Site in 1985.

The first protective wall (enceinte) was built in the 17th century under Louis de Buade, sieur de Frontenac. A plan of fortifications was developed by the French military engineer Jacques Levasseur de Néré (1662–1723) and approved by Louis XIV's commissary general of fortifications Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban in 1701. Considerable work took place on the fortifications after the fall of Louisbourg in 1745 under the direction of military engineer Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry.

The existing star-shaped fortifications were built by the United Kingdom between 1820 and 1831 under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Elias Walker Durnford of theRoyal Engineers, and incorporated a section of the French enceinte (enclosure) of 1745. Their purpose was to secure the strategic heights of Cap Diamant against the Americans and to serve as a refuge for the British garrison in the event of attack or rebellion. The preservation of much of the fortifications and defences of Quebec is due to the intervention of Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, Governor General of Canada 1872–1878, who also established the Citadelle as a vice-regal residence.

The Quebec Conferences of 1943 and 1944, in which Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King discussed strategy for World War II, were held at the Citadelle of Quebec.

The Citadelle has been the home station of the Royal 22^e Régiment of the Canadian Forces since 1920. In addition to its use as a military installation, it has been also an official residence of the Queen in Right of Canada and the Governor General of Canada since 1872,^] who by tradition resides there for several weeks out of the year. (The Governor General's primary official residence is Rideau Hall in Ottawa.)

Battle of the Plains of Abraham Part of the Seven Years' War French and Indian War
Date 13 September 1759 Location Quebec City Result Decisive British victory; British occupation of Quebec City
Belligerents
Great Britain	France
Commanders and leaders
James Wolfe † Robert Monckton	Louis-Joseph de Montcalm †
Strength
4,800 regulars	2,000 regulars 600 colonial army 1,800 militia and Aboriginals
Casualties and losses
60 killed 600 wounded	200 killed 400 wounded

·          Seven Years' War in North America: The French and Indian War, St. Lawrence and Mohawk Theater

The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, also known as the Battle of Quebec, (Bataille des Plaines d'Abraham or Première bataille de Québec in French) was a pivotal battle in the Seven Years' War (referred to as the French and Indian War in the United States). The battle, which began on 13 September 1759, was fought between the British Army and Navy, and the French Army, on a plateau just outside the walls of Quebec City, on land that was originally owned by a farmer named Abraham Martin, hence the name of the battle. The battle involved fewer than 10,000 troops between both sides, but proved to be a deciding moment in the conflict between France and Britain over the fate of New France, influencing the later creation of Canada.

We continued on to Quebec City driving through the old city and eventually arriving at our stunning destination The Chateau Frontenac in the new city . We settled into our room which had views to the river and then went out onto the boardwalk with panoramic views of the river and the old town which is connected to the new town by funicular. We then walked around the new and old towns and grabbed a snack as we weren't hungry after such a large lunch. 

Thursday, 19 September 2013 Day 3 Montreal

We met our tour director, Gary, at breakfast and set off on a sight seeing tour of Montreal which started with a walk to look at some of the buildings around the hotel including the Bank of Montreal. We were then picked up by bus and visited many of the sights that we had driven past yesterday.

Our tour covered much of the areas we had already seen including St Joseph's Oratory. Much as we would have liked to we did not climb the hundreds to stairs to the Oratory as we would not have had time to actually look inside.We visited some of the outer areas of he city and saw a variety of architectural styles from Victorian terraces to the very modern (The Convention centre). We drove through the golden mile with its million dollar homes and then to Old Montreal.

We had a stop at Notre Dame Basilica where the impressive wedding chapel is as large as St Johns. We made our way back to the hotel through the underground shopping centre and enjoyed a welcome dinner with our fellow tour members at the hotel.

Wednesday, 18 September 2013 Day 2 Montreal

Our tour did not officially begin until the following day, so we took the open top bus around the city for the day. We decided to ride around the full tour which took in Notre Dame Basilica, China Town, Latin Quarter, Montreal Museum of  Fine Art, St Joseph's Oratory, Mount Royal Park and Old Montreal.

We then went around again this time alighting to look at the Museum of Fine Art before making our way back to the hotel through the underground shopping complex. the railway station. In the evening we walked to a local chain restaurant and sampled the local smoked meat which was delicious. On the way we walked past the Bank of Montreal which has an impressive façade and interestingly held the Crown Jewels of England during WW2.  Later that evening I went to one of the local tourist shops to buy a tee-shirt as it was quite warm and I had not packed many light clothes and I saw squirrels in the local park

Tuesday, 17 September 2013 Day1 Sydney to Montreal

We were transferred by limousine to Sydney Airport where we picked up our business class  Air Canada flight to Vancouver . The flight was enjoyable with good food and the ability to stretch out and sleep which was amazing. Our flight was running behind time and with a screening machine out of action at Montreal Airport we raced to catch our connecting flight to Montreal although once on the plane we once again settled down for an enjoyable flight.

On arrival at Montreal we were transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in the centre of Montreal. Even though we had travelled through the night because of time changes we arrived on Tuesday, 17 September 2013, the same day we departed from Sydney Australia.

The Queen Elizabeth Hotel (French: Le Reine Élizabeth; official English name Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth) is a grand hotel in Montreal, Quebec. Completed in 1958, it was built by the Canadian National Railway and managed for many years by Hilton Hotels. CN Hotels were later sold to Canadian Pacific Hotels, which is now known as Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. With 1039 rooms and 21 floors it is the largest hotel in the province of Quebec, and the second largest Fairmont hotel in Canada after the Royal York in Toronto, which has 1365 rooms.

Located at 900 René Lévesque Boulevard West, in the heart of Montreal, it is connected to Central Station and to the underground city.

Many famous guests have stayed there, including Queen Elizabeth II (four times) and the Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Prince Charles, Fidel Castro, who was the first head of state to visit the hotel, Charles de Gaulle, and Princess Grace of Monaco, during Expo '67, Indira Gandhi, Jacques Chirac, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, Perry Como, Joan Crawford, John Travolta, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and George W. Bush.

The hotel reached worldwide fame when John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who had been refused entry into the United States, conducted their Bed-In in Room 1742 at the hotel between May 26 and June 2, 1969. "Give Peace a Chance" was recorded in this room on June 1 by André Perry. This song is the first solo single issued by Lennon, and became an anthem of the American anti-war movement during the 1970s. It peaked at #14 on theBillboard Hot 100 and #2 on the British singles chart.

The NHL Entry Draft was also held at the hotel ten times between 1963 and 1979.

In 1970, the Quebec government moved its centre of operations into the Queen Elizabeth in the midst of the October Crisis.

There was controversy over naming the hotel: Quebec nationalists wanted it called Château Maisonneuve in honour of Montreal's founder, Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve. CN's president, Donald Gordon, insisted it be named for the queen, who had unexpectedly come to the throne in 1952 while the hotel was still on the drawing boards.

The French name, Le Reine Élizabeth, may appear startling because of the use of the masculine article le. The article does not apply to the feminine noun Reine but to the understood masculine noun Hôtel.


After settling in we walked around the city and found we were next door the Mary Queen of the World Basilica, a very impressive church which we looked at the next day. We decided to buy pulled pork rolls with bacon and a stick maple syrup sauce from one of the many food trucks that lined the city streets for dinner and sat in a nearby park to eat them.